Page 40 of The Temptation (Executive Suite Secrets #4)

SIMON MILLER

Parker’s announcement that he was having a boyfriend sleepover while Sebastian, Declan, Rome, and Pierce were out of town was the only thing that saved my sanity.

It had been tempting to accompany them up to visit Sawyer’s grave, but I was afraid that if I was there, Pierce might censor himself, and he needed to let out all the emotions he’d been bottling up for years.

But that didn’t mean I wanted to remain cooped up in Pierce’s house, staring at the walls, unable to write music because thoughts of Pierce and my stupid brother consumed my brain.

Fuck his dead ass. Screwing up my chance to have a happily ever after with the sexiest man alive.

I could hear his ridiculous guffaws from the afterlife.

Just after sunset, Pierce’s driver, Edward, dropped me off at Declan and Parker’s house with a backpack stuffed with clothes and some of Pierce’s pilfered toiletries.

As soon as the door opened, I was hit in the face with loud music and laughter.

And yet, Declan’s butler and all-around assistant, Franks, looked unruffled by the chaos.

“Hi, Franks. Sounds like the party has started,” I greeted him as I stepped out of the cold.

“Yes, Mr. Graham and Mr. Rose arrived a few moments ago, and Master Parker has greeted them with shots of tequila.”

A chuckle left me as I handed over my bag and coat to Franks. “Thanks. I can find my own way.”

“I believe they’ve moved to the kitchen. Master Parker has requested Chef Donovan make what he is calling ‘fancy-pants junk food.’”

Okay, this was already sounding like it was going to be an even better night than I’d been expecting.

At least Parker still knew how to party.

God knew I didn’t. There had been none of that during my college career, and my agent had turned into my handler and personal killjoy when I was traveling.

I could use a good party. The one thing that might have made it better was having Pierce there.

We could have gotten drunk and sneaked off to some shadowy corner to make out.

In the kitchen, I found Parker, Liam, and Byron gathered around a counter heavily laden with some very delicious snack foods.

There wasn’t a chip or Cheez Doodle in sight, but there were incredibly cheesy nachos covered in what looked to be brisket and deep-fried ravioli bites.

But I went straight for the incredible cheese platter with crackers and thin slices of prosciutto.

“Simon!” Parker shouted. “You made it!”

“Can’t talk. Eating cheese,” I said as I stuffed a chunk of Havarti into my mouth.

“No! He’s got to do a shot too!” Liam ordered.

“What’s your poison? Tequila? Bourbon? Whiskey? Vodka? Gin?”

“Don’t care. Give me something that goes well with cheese.”

Parker disappeared and reappeared a minute later with a shot glass. I threw it back before I could even think about what I was doing. It tasted like I had just drunk turpentine. My entire body locked up and suddenly shuddered, and everyone laughed.

“Here. Eat this Camembert. It’ll wash the taste away.” Byron handed me the lovely cheese spread on an artisanal cracker. He was right. It made all the nastiness go away.

“What’ll you have? We have wine, beer, and I know how to mix up a few cocktails,” Parker offered.

I gazed along the line to see Liam drinking a local beer while Byron was sipping something red from a martini glass. “Cocktail, please. Something fruity and sweet.”

Parker rushed off to get my drink, and the thumping music lowered a bit.

“Oh, it must be time for Joy to go to bed,” Chef Donovan stated as he took little round pizzas made on slices of French bread from the oven.

“Does the nanny have her tonight? Or are you and Franks watching her?”

Donovan nodded with a wide smile. “The nanny has the night off, so we happily offered to take her. Master Parker has already said good night. Master Declan FaceTimed with her after dinner.”

“I’m surprised he’s willing to stay the night away from her,” Liam quipped.

“He wasn’t.” Chef Donovan lowered his voice and leaned in close. “Master Parker ordered his fiancé to remain in Charlotte for the night so he could have a boys’ night with his friends and Master Parker could have this party with you. I think Master Declan might have pouted.”

“They need the time together,” Byron murmured as he picked up one of the ravioli. “Sebastian hasn’t gotten to spend time with his old friends in a while, and I think he’s worried about their relationships fading away because they’re all settling down.”

Liam snorted as he used a fork to shovel more meat and toppings onto a tortilla chip.

“Not freaking likely. You know how they are. As soon as something goes weird in their lives, they immediately pick up the phone or rush to someone’s house.

” He looked at me and smirked. “You have no idea how many times I’ve had to sit on Rome to keep him from checking on Pierce. ”

I nodded and hummed sarcastically. “ Mmm …yes, I’m sure you suffered so much . Forced to sit on your boyfriend ?”

“Actually, I think it’s kind of adorable how they are in almost constant contact with each other,” Parker broke in as he delivered a pretty pink drink in a martini glass to me.

“Same,” Byron chimed in. “I didn’t have a lot of friends as I was growing up, and definitely not any I remained close with well into adulthood.”

“Rome was my only close friend as a kid, and you all know how that went to shit,” Liam grumbled.

“That’s why I wanted us all together while the four of them were out of town. I thought we could form our own boyfriends’ group. We have to stick together during those times our significant others are being asshats. Who else would understand? Who else could we vent to when they’re being stubborn?”

“Oh, my fucking God, so true!” Liam groaned. He picked up his beer bottle and clinked it to the side of the glass that Parker was holding.

“Or insanely impulsive,” Byron added, clinking his glass against Liam’s beer and Parker’s glass before drinking the last of it.

They all turned toward me, and I swallowed the cheese I’d been savoring. “ Um …technically, I’m not a boyfriend. I’m still a fake boyfriend. God only knows what Pierce is going to decide while he’s out of town.”

Parker grinned and tossed an arm across my shoulders, pulling me in close. “Oh, Simon, we know your golden day is just around the corner. Pierce has probably already come to his senses and is trying to figure out a way to win you back after all that he’s put you through.”

“Win me back? Pierce simply has to show up and I’ll be happy to date his sexy ass,” I scoffed.

“No! No!” Byron shouted. “You don’t want to skip the apology part. It’s soooo good.”

“It is kind of fun, even when you’re the one stuck doing the groveling,” Liam admitted. “It lets you tap into your creative side. Or it gives you an excuse to wear an inflatable dinosaur costume in a library.”

“Or it lets you be super romantic,” Parker proclaimed. “I bet Pierce goes the romantic route. He seems like an old-fashioned romantic to me.”

My mind was spinning. They all sounded so confident that Pierce would return to Cincinnati and be determined to make our relationship official. I would be happy if Pierce presented me with a single red rose and asked me out on a date. But something swoon-worthy? I wouldn’t survive it.

After Chef Donovan finished his food preparation, Parker shooed him away to rest for the remainder of the evening while they gathered up all the food to take into the lounge with the bar.

Parker made more drinks for us, and we sprawled on the furniture, gorging ourselves on delicious food and gossip.

It was well after midnight when we were all dressed in our pajamas, picking at the scraps of food that remained.

“Trust us, Pierce is going to make you totally swoon. It might take him a couple of days, but it’s going to be amazing,” Parker declared, his words slurring after the many drinks he’d had.

“Plus, he’s got all the guys there to help him,” Byron said.

His eyes were closed, and he was clutching a pillow to his chest as he was curled up in a ball in the corner of the long sofa.

“I know Sebastian had help from Pierce and Rome. I love that man to death, but there’s no way he organized that giant digital billboard above Fountain Square by himself. ”

A soft hum left me. “I heard about that. It was so sweet.”

“Byron was the one who gave me the nudge in the right direction for Declan,” Parker admitted.

Byron grunted. It sounded as if he were half-asleep already.

I had no doubt that wonderful bedrooms were prepared for all of us in this big house, but I was stretched out on the other side of the sofa Byron was on.

Liam had a love seat all to himself. And Parker was lying on the floor.

We were all in different states of intoxication, showing no interest in climbing stairs.

“Do you really think Pierce will come around?” I asked in a small, quiet voice.

“What?” Parker lurched upright, his hair standing up in every direction, looking dazed and very confused. “Are you serious?”

Liam gave a jaw-cracking yawn. “Of course. He adores you. He tries to hide it, but you can hear it when he lets himself talk about you.”

“But he also loved Sawyer like a brother. He made some dumbass promise to protect me. I don’t want to be protected. I want to be loved as his boyfriend. I want sex! ”

Byron sighed happily and shifted so that he was lying more on the couch. “ Mmmm …sex with Sebastian is the best.”

I muffled a giggle, but Parker and Liam had no qualms about nearly falling over laughing.

“Fuck. I’ve gotta remember Byron is a lightweight.” Parker cackled. “He’s too adorable.” The larger man shoved to his feet and shuffled to Byron. “I’ll get him up to a bed. He’s partied out.”

“I’ll get all these plates and glasses to the kitchen for Chef Donovan and Franks,” Liam offered. He stood, swaying only slightly.

I rose at the same time as Liam. “I’ll help.”

We made quick work of getting things tidied up. It wasn’t perfectly clean, but we also didn’t leave it a pigsty.

“Seriously, Simon, I believe Pierce is going to come back here with the desire to make a genuine effort at dating. It won’t be perfect. Pierce strikes me as the type to get bossy, but I’m sure you can whip him into shape.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. I just might like Pierce’s bossy side. However, I was also a fan of arguing with him when he was feeling bossy, so it was a win-win for me.

“Are you saying that you and Rome still get into arguments?” I taunted.

Liam had finished rinsing out our glasses in the sink, and he shot me the most unamused look over his shoulder. “All the fucking time.”

I snickered, and that only egged him on.

“I love Rome with everything I am, but there are days he can’t sit still. It boggles my mind to this day that he’s a librarian. I don’t know how they deal with him at the library, unless he saves up all that energy until he’s with me.”

“That’s probably the case,” I agreed.

Liam leaned his hip against the sink and folded his arms across his chest. “And sometimes we fall into the trap of clinging to old, distrustful thoughts. There were a lot of years when we hated each other for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes our brains conjure that shit up when we’re tired or frustrated.

We’ve learned that we have to take a step back and remind ourselves that all that shit is done.

Pierce will need more time after this trip to still deal with old pain. ”

“So, be patient.”

“Exactly. It’ll be worth it.”

Liam and I stumbled our way through the house to the second floor, where we poked our heads into different bedrooms, trying to locate the ones that contained our belongings.

I flopped onto the comfortable mattress, so grateful that I hadn’t tried to stick the night out on the couch. This was so much better.

But the best thing was sleeping in Pierce’s bed, his larger body spooning me, his arm draped across my waist, his lips kissing the top of my head when he thought I was already asleep.

Fuck. Please let them be right.

I didn’t need a big, showy apology. I just wanted Pierce to hold me again.